Supplementing: milk or formula?

[ThreeCats]

Hi all, I hope this is the right place to ask these questions.

DS is 13 months old, and I am 4.5 weeks pregnant. DS will generally eat a little of whatever we're eating, but still gets quite a bit of his nutrition from BM. I would like to start offering him milk or formula, so he's comfortable drinking it should I have supply issues because of my pregnancy. He doesn't seem to have any issues with dairy products, so currently I'm trying to decide between whole milk or a toddler formula. Formula seems to have a lot more vitamins/minerals, but it seems like milk + a multivitamin would be a good choice too. Any thoughts, either way?

Also, I'm considering supplementing with DHA. Does anyone know how much is appropriate for a 13 month-old? The supplement offered by Nature's One to complement their Baby's Only formula has 15mg DHA, while Spectrum Organics offers Toddler DHA that contains 125 mg DHA per serving. That's a pretty big difference!

Thanks in advance!

[annettemarie]

Moving to Breastfeeding Beyond Infancy

[mambera]

I give my 13 mo whole milk (organic unhomogenized blah blah blah) while I'm at work (I'm just about weaned off the pump). My feeling on this is, why would I give her a powdered processed food that tastes gross when I could give her a fresh unprocessed food that tastes nice?

Dunno about the vitamins but generally I would always prefer a healthy diet to a pill. You never really know what's in a supplement and the nutrients may not be absorbed or function the same way when given outside of their regular nutritional context. Why not feed your DS some nice fresh fish on a regular basis instead?

[ThreeCats]

Thanks, Mambera. We decided to go with whole milk as well, and so far our DS really seems to like it. He is doing a lot better about eating a variety of foods this week, so I'm less concerned about the multi than I was. I generally feel the same way you do about supplements (that whole foods are better), but as vegetarians, a DHA supplement is probably our best option.